Is Carlos Carrasco a breakout pitcher candidate in 2016?
January 4, 2016Buckeyes Roundball Roundup: Stomped the Gophers, Held off Illinois
January 4, 2016The Ohio State Buckeyes looked to prove a point to the rest of college football during their season finale in the Fiesta Bowl against one of the best teams in the country. And, they did — beating the Irish 44-28. Despite some Big Ten teams losing big in their bowl games, Ohio State proved, outside of a dismal game against Michigan State, they should have been in the College Football Playoff.
Let’s dissect the game.
The Good
J.T. Barrett
Named the Offensive MVP for the Buckeyes, No. 16 had a solid game against Notre Dame, finishing with 211 passing yards, one touchdown, and one interception, while completing 19-of-31 passes. The red-shirt sophomore also had 23 carries for 96 yards.
In his last seven games, Barrett accounted for 20 touchdowns (11 rushing, nine passing). Also, No. 16 is now 15-2 as the starting quarterback for Ohio State over the past two seasons.
Ezekiel Elliott
When it comes to bowl season, Zeke has been an absolute monster throughout his collegiate career. Against the Irish, Elliott ran for 149 yards and four touchdowns on 27 carries with a 30-yard reception added on as a bonus. The junior now owns the Fiesta Bowl record and tied a school record for most touchdowns in a postseason game. He shares the Buckeye record with himself from the National Championship game last season.
The third-year player, who has already declared he will forego his senior season and enter the 2016 NFL Draft, finished his Ohio State career with 12 rushing touchdowns in four career postseason games. I think it’s safe to say that Zeke has officially been fed.
Michael Thomas
By far, Ohio State’s most consistent receiver in 2015 was Thomas, and he continued to show off his skills against Notre Dame. He nabbed seven catches for 72 yards and a touchdown. While he did drop what would have been his second touchdown catch, the junior has now caught a pass in 29 consecutive games. The touchdown catch he did complete was his ninth of the season and 18th of his career.
Sean Nuernberger
The sophomore nailed all three of his field goals though his longest attempt was merely 38 yards.
Nuernberger’s three made field goals set a career-high with attempts of 37, 38, and 35 yards respectively.
Gareon Conley
Despite only having seven tackles show up in the box score, the Irish attempted to pick on Conley in the passing game as they steered clear of Eli Apple, but the sophomore held his own.
Darron Lee
In the Fiesta Bowl, Lee did what he has done his whole career at Ohio State; make plays both in the backfield and in pass coverage. He defended wide receivers. He defended running backs. He tallied seven tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss, and a forced fumble. Truly, the red-shirt sophomore was one of the best players on the Silver Bullets against Notre Dame (and all season).
Tyvis Powell
Recording his third interception of the season (and another that was called back due to a questionable targeting penalty on Joey Bosa), Powell now has eight interceptions in his Ohio State career.
The junior added five tackles for good measure in the game.
Sam Hubbard
Getting the starting nod due to the suspension of Adolphus Washington, the red-shirt freshman proved that he is going to be a mainstay on the Bucks’ defensive line for years to come. Hubbard not only had four tackles, one sack, and one tackle for loss, but he also put plenty of pressure in the Irish backfield throughout the game.
Third and fourth down offense
Converting 10-of-18 third-down and their lone fourth-down attempt, Ohio State’s offense was hard to stop in the Fiesta Bowl. Whether it was J.T. Barrett, Ezekiel Elliott, or another playmaker, the Bucks made the crucial plays Friday afternoon, especially on third and fourth-down.
Red zone offense
Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes converted all seven of their red-zone opportunities (four touchdowns, three field goals).
Although three field goals in seven opportunities is high, the fact Ohio State got points on all seven red-zone opportunities is superb. Ezekiel Elliott is a big reason why the Bucks had so much success when they were close to the endzone (along with kudos to his offensive line plowing holes).
Punt and kick returns
Ohio State’s offense sure didn’t need an extra boost Friday afternoon, but they were given one by special teams. Jalin Marshall (five returns for 109 yards) and Curtis Samuel (two returns for 58 yards) gave the Buckeyes some great field position.
The Seniors
A 50-4 record, Big Ten title, Sugar Bowl victory, 4-0 against Michigan, a Fiesta Bowl victory, and National Championship in the inaugural College Football Playoffs is the final tally for the seniors. Ohio State couldn’t have asked for much more than what the senior class brought to Columbus over four years. Also, remember they went through a major coaching change.
The Bad
Red zone defense
Like Ohio State, Notre Dame also converted all of their red-zone opportunities. Although the Irish had the ball inside the 20-yard line just three times, the Silver Bullets must be able to hold their opponent to a field goal or less at least one time as the Irish scored touchdowns on every trip.
The Ugly
The NCAA Rule Book
Joey Bosa’s ejection was a joke. Yes, according to the rule book, the hit was targeting due to the fact that Bosa led with the crown of his helmet, but he also hit the Notre Dame quarterback in the chest, not helmet-to-helmet.
To throw a player – let alone one of the best defensive players in college football – out of the game in the first quarter for a football play is hideous and the NCAA needs to make a change to their rule book so it doesn’t happen again.
35 Comments
Worst thing about Bosa penalty is that I think he was doomed either way. If he keeps his head up, it strikes the QB helmet-to-helmet and he invariably gets called for targeting either way. If this is the way football is headed, its future looks bleak.
His only real option there was to dive for the quarterbacks knee, which is the easiest way to seriously injure the player.
Anthony Zettel obliterated Rudock on a play way more blatant than Bosa and didn’t get booted.
The targeting foul is too subjective. It needs some sort of refinement, or eliminated altogether.
Agree, but allowing the QB to possibly throw a completion, or throw the ball away. This option will result in the highest posibility for injury as you said. Sad thing is, if you were to poll QBs on the 3 options discussed, the most legal (low) would probably be least desirable choice.
Maybe it’s because I’m not an OSU fan, but I feel like the option of putting his shoulder into the midsection of the QB is being overlooked as one of Bosa’s “options” here. If he runs through him with his head to the side, he avoids the call for targeting, no?
I think the targeting rule as written is untenable, because there needs to be some middle ground between “pick up the flag” and “automatic ejection”. As a Michigan fan (I know, I know), I saw Jake Rudock get blasted at least four times this season, and only once was targeting called (and then rescinded) when Anthony Zettel left his feet and head-butted Rudock. Then, Joe Bolden gets blocked/tackled onto Connor Cook, and he’s out of the game. It’s completely subjective, and the fact that there’s no way to just, say, throw a 15 yarder and then leave the player in the game… it sucks.
But, to insinuate that there was literally no option for Bosa to not get called for something isn’t 100% accurate.
Yeah maybe he is able to pull his head to one side or another, but the QB was running to his left meaning he would have to get his head past the body. May be one of those easier said then done things.
Either way, players will adjust and start hitting lower, and many more QBs will be significantly hurt because of it.
Hi Dan. Miss you.
Anyone else think that some combination of Bama/Stanford/Clemson/OSU would have made for a much better playoff?
I agree that the rule is untenable. Surprisingly, I also agree that Bosa should have been ejected, regardless – as much as I hated to see him go. The rule is intended to protect the tackler as much as the guy getting tackled (the tacklee?). What Bosa did put himself at risk more than it put the QB at risk. If they want to put an end to leading with the helmet, it’s plays like this that will eventually do it.
Now, after watching the replay numerous times, I do think that Bosa was intending to shoulder-hit him (but couldn’t due to the trajectory of the two players); but again, if he’s going to do that, he needs to have his head up. So, sadly, ejection was the right call.
This is Bolden’s ejection. Pretty weak…
https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jhhkFNRHHEI5LaIDezo1cpbgN4M=/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4172542/35.0.gif
I’m looking for Zettel’s spear of Rudock. But, it was way worse than Bosa’s…
http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/sports/2016-01-01/acee0820-b0b8-11e5-856d-f95c0952b1c6_Bosa.gif
Found it.
The Zettel spear of Rudock is here…
https://vine.co/v/iulVVd5PlH9
Yeah, I should reiterate that I didn’t think Bosa was doing something dirty or intentionally trying to hurt someone. But, while we may not like all the letters of the rule, the refs actually had little choice but to call it on Bosa, as per the letter of the rule he led with the crown of his helmet.
I think where I get a little hinky on it is in this quote from the piece: “To throw a player – let alone one of the best defensive players in college football – out of the game in the first quarter for a football play is hideous…”
Two things:
1. To NOT throw a player out when he violated the rule as it was written? The ref simply can’t do that. We can debate whether the rule needs to be revisited, but to insinuate that the ref simply shouldn’t call it because he doesn’t agree with the rule?
2. “let alone one of the best defensive players in the game” – should this matter? Does Joey Bosa get a pass for leading with his helmet because he might be the #1 overall pick and people want to see him in his last game? I agree that the rule needs to be changed, at least in terms of the penalties for it (or at least the scale of what can be enforced), but you can’t hide behind “you can’t take the good players out on a subjective rule” when it wouldn’t be any less dangerous if, say, Sam Hubbard had done it.
I never really left, Scott. Still lurking early and often. 🙂
The crazy thing about Bolden’s ejection was that I was sure they were calling the penalty on Desmond Morgan (#3) who actually was in the process of making a tackle attempt on Cook that went pretty high. I would have actually made my peace with that call. But, to have someone watch a replay, clearly see #74 for MSU blocking Bolden and then half-throw him onto Cook, and STILL call it targeting? Woof.
I still can’t believe they overturned the call on Zettel. Like, Rudock had left his feet, which meant that Zettel also had to leave his feet to hit him that high. Intent is meaningless.
And, really, that wasn’t even the worst one Rudock endured this season. There were two hits in the Minnesota game–one that put him out of the game–that were way, way worse. Not even a penalty on either:
https://vine.co/v/e35lrgzWzIV
https://vine.co/v/e3JQF7JmI25
How many targeting calls happened this bowl season? Seemed to be quite often and for whatever reason, they seemed to happen early in games. Or, my mind is honing in on a couple and mushing them all together since I didn’t look them up specifically.
I completely agree, but also agree the CFP got it correct. The college football playoffs start in Week 1 (obviously not single elimination). Buckeyes lost the wrong game and Stanford lost two times. Unfortunate, but the reality.
Well, and considering MSU only had one loss on what should have been a penalty, beat UM (grumble grumble grumble) and OSU on the road, and beat 12-0 Iowa at a neutral site… whether or not they were “better” than OSU is moot. Otherwise, why play the regular season at all?
But this is “AP/BCS” thinking. Under the new “Playoff” analysis, none of that should have mattered. The whole idea behind the CFP was that they would “pick the 4 best teams.” They did not. They used “rankings,” and “losses,” and “timings of losses” to figure out “who deserved to be #1, #2, #3, and #4” – which is a far different animal than identifying the best 4 teams. they played into the media narrative, and came up with a very sub-par playoff.
Now, obviously I’m being a bit of a homer – though the Buckeye in me also agrees that OSU didn’t “deserve” to be there because of the Michigan State game – but I just don’t see any objective analysis that would have anyone honestly believing that Sparty was better than either OSU or Stanford when the playoff was decided.
That Stanford win over Iowa was about as comprehensive a dismantling as I’ve ever seen.
The score wasn’t even close to how uncompetitive that game was.
The Zettel targeting was in the regular season and it was damn near criminal.
But, the early bowl games “seemed’ to have the majority of them.
I loved Musberger saying something like “IOWA IS WINNING THE SECOND HALF” when they scored their second garbage TD to make it like 38-16 or whatever it was. Sure thing, Brent. Problem for Iowa was they got absolutely dismembered in the first half.
Henry is a good RB. How McCaffrey didn’t win the Heisman (maybe they should wait to vote until after bowl games?) is beyond me, though. That kid is amazing.
With the benefit of hindsight, yes. MSU didn’t deserve to be there. But, Oklahoma probably did.
I guess that, while I understand the frustration of seeing how well the Buckeyes played against Michigan and Notre Dame probably irks OSU fans to no end, what measure can you use to put OSU in the playoff ahead of MSU? In other words, you can run through stats, splits, whatever you want to. But, MSU went to Columbus and beat OSU on their field with a backup QB (or two). That has to mean SOMEthing in terms of trying to decide who is “better” with the data you have available at the end of November.
Why do I feel like McCaffrey is going to fail all the analytics in next years draft and end up a Patriot…
Forgot about this one, too. Rudock (sorry, but that’s the team I watch the most, and for some reason the guy got rocked a TON this season with no calls) slides, is completely down and out of the play, and gets a helmet to the face. They called it targeting, and then picked up the flag. I mean.
http://deadspin.com/matt-millen-has-some-strong-opinions-on-targeting-1735864775
The slide hit actually knocked him out of the game.
Well, the whole point of the Playoff Committee was to make a ballsy call, outside of stats, splits, whatever. They actually did it last year to some degree (coincidentally also including Ohio State).
I’m actually not irked that Ohio State wasn’t in the playoff. I think that it’s just interesting that Ohio State has, on some significant level, provided the litmus test for whether the playoff worked in both years of its existence. I think it just gives me a different lens through which to see the thing, and for what it’s worth, I don’t think the thing worked correctly either year (FSU got in last year because they were undefeated and reigning national champs – which oddly could have happened to OSU’s disadvantage this year). I have hated every iteration of determining a CFB national champ in my lifetime (and I’ve enjoyed two championships!), and I continue to hate what they do now. It’s so impure, so artificial, as to make the whole pursuit meaningless.
Honestly, I absolutely hate judgment calls – but if the committee is going to make judgment calls, they should man up and actually be bold and do it. And I agree that Oklahoma probably deserved it based on bold judgment call criteria. In fact, Stanford in and Ohio State out probably would have made as much sense as what actually happened.
Agree on McCaffrey. Heisman all the way. I also agree that the Heisman should wait until after the post-season (not only because it would have meant a Heisman for Ezekiel Elliott last year!).
Yep, and it was probably the murkier of the calls in terms of targeting. You could argue the Minnesota player was starting to tackle when Rudock slid right before the contact was initiated. The one with the DB hitting him late and high, though… that was the worst of all the ones we’ve talked about here, including Bosa’s. By far.
I disagree they used rankings. They created rankings. They have to take into account games won/lost. Do we really want them purely subjectively picking four teams they think are best based on whatever metrics they feel pertinent?
That is an awfully big can of worms and it devalues the regular season which they decidedly attempted to avoid doing.
All the CFP Selection team does is stack up resumes next to each other and see whose resume is “best” accordingly. Some subjectivity, but not as much as a “forget records” style that would have to be done to have gotten Stanford in the Top Four.
objective analysis that would have anyone honestly believing that Sparty was better than either OSU
Well, there was a game played in November that says otherwise. I agree it was coaches fault Bucks lost, but nothing more objective than the scoreboard.
Yep, luck is a big part of sports. Gotta roll with it when you are on the bad side.
Paragraph by paragraph rejoinder:
If it’s an arbitrary 4-team playoff, why not? If we’re going to acquiesce to having an ad hoc committee make a determination as to what 4 random teams get to play for a title, let’s have them stand up like big boys (and girls, as the case may be) and make their declaration. And fwiw, I don’t buy that they “create” a ranking. They are absolutely influenced by the AP/Coaches/ESPN in “making” their ranking. These things are all in-bred.
Disagree that it devalues the regular season. If you want to be one of the “4 best,” you had better put together an impressive regular season. There’s no other way to get there. But the regular season shouldn’t dictate everything. In fact, one could just as easily argue that the current crap system also devalues the regular season (see Notre Dame), or – more likely – overvalues the regular season (see FSU 2014; OSU last year (almost); Alabama, every SEC school, any year).
How does one stack up a resume without being influenced by “rankings”? One doesn’t. The “resume” is the media’s creation, based on “Top 25s,” and “Conference Power Rankings (based on Top 25s),” “One loss, two loss, red loss, blue loss,” analysis, etc. See my in-bred comment above. (Not that the comment was in-bred, but the comment about the incestuous nature of ranking rankings.)
“Objective” is a weird word in that it can subjectively mean different things. I had a 10-minute argument with a law professor about this while in law school. Guess who won? [Hint: It wasn’t my grade.] Anyway, what I mean is, EVERYONE knows that the TSUN State game was the coaches’ fault. Everyone. From Zeke Elliott to my 4-year old nephew. Objectively, then, and especially after the TSUN Proper game, EVERYONE subjectively knows that the TSUN State game was an outlier, and anomaly. Objectively, OSU was obviously better than TSUN State, and everyone subjectively knew this. I’m so subjectively screwed up with this objectivity that I just want to see a real, bona fide, tournament. Screw the bowls. Screw ’em!
completely disagree with AP/Coaches/et cetera affecting their rankings. There is always bias (human nature), but do not think it is one of them.
Now, if we just decide to make a 64 team double elimination tournament after a four game exhibition season (to get the kids ready), then I am all-in there (would lose money for schools though, which they will never allow).
Now, now, you know that’s not what I’m suggesting. Would you honestly take the current system over what the FCS or Div II or Div III does? Honestly? If so, then I have nothing further to say. We are done. DONE.
And we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the rankings. I may be far too cynical, but I think it’s unicorns and rainbows to think that the committee is not influenced.
No one is ever happy with current, just have a different route I prefer to fix. If we just get to 64 teams and eliminate most of bad games, I’d just take it as a win though.
How the heck he made it thought the season is beyond me.